Developing a broad range of reading strategies, and understanding how they may be used, supports students to become independent and successful readers. Educators need to specifically teach students how to think and talk about texts, rather than just conveying information about texts or doing the reading and thinking for their students. Following are some great reading strategies that will help you encourage your young readers to think about what they are reading and engage more fully with the text.
10 great reading strategies*
- Orally provide a sentence from a text with a key meaning word deleted, e.g. an adjective or noun. Ask for an appropriate word to complete the sentence. Invite students to justify why their word is a logical one to use. (Meaning)
Alex got a new bike for his…(birthday). - Supply a root word from a text and ask students to add another word that makes it into a compound word. (Structure – root words and compound words)
out (outside), play (playtime, playground), under (underground). - Give students two L-shaped pieces of card so they can frame single words. (Visual)
- After you have completed a story map for a text with students, model how to use this information to retell what was read. (Retell)
- Model how to make connections between the text and students’ own experiences. (Comprehension – connecting with prior knowledge)
This text makes me remember when I… - Use a pointer when reading big books so students can see the flow of the text as it is read. (Fluency – rate)
- Model for students how to hold a finger at the end of a line to guide their reading. (Finger-pointing)
- Read a text to students. Then give students a hard copy of the text. Now read the text again, and while students follow along by pointing to each word, add some additional words. (Insertions)
‘We are all free to go to school.’ What did I say that was different to the text? - Compose a sentence. Write the sentence onto a card and cut it into individual words. Give students one word each and ask them to stand in line to represent the original sentence. Now ask a student (or students) to step out of the line. What happened to the meaning of the sentence? Repeat for each word. (Omissions)
‘We are all free to go to school.’ What did I say that was different to the text? - Focus on a word that students have mistaken for one with a similar meaning. (Substitutions)
You said…It sort of means the same, but have another look.
*These strategies are taken from Anne Bayetto, 2013, Read Record Respond: Linking Reading Assessment to Instruction, Second Edition, Oxford University Press
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